Proper Care and Feeding of Your Website: Part 1
Posted on | January 22, 2010 | No Comments
As I meet individuals and company representatives who are seeking to redesign their website or find new ways to bring in traffic and sales leads, I am constantly reminded of the fact that websites are living, breathing beings. They really should not be looked upon as things you buy because “the CEO says we need a new site” or because “our competitors have a cool site, so we should, too.” Most of all, website are not projects that have a conclusion. Just because your new site has launched, doesn’t mean the work is done. Just like a human being, or a plant (whatever analogy suits you), websites need proper care and feeding to thrive, and in order to be relevant, and to perform in all the ways you identified when you initially started your site project, you have to be constantly, strategically, active.
In this two-part post, I am going to point out the first steps of how to care and feed your website for it to be a success, regardless of your topic, business, or goals. Next week, in Part 2, I will talk about what’s needed for your site to thrive beyond the big site launch.
- Content: Content is the most important element of any website. If you can’t find a way to communicate in clear and concise way, then stop right where you are and don’t even design your site yet. In fact, write out all of your copy in Microsoft Word before you look at designs. You can fine-tune copy later. What’s important is that you are very direct about what you want to say about your company, service, topics, what have you. Embellishing or indulging yourself with fluff does nothing but turn away people who just want the facts, brief descriptions, and in the end, how to contact you if they need your product or service. Each page should answer questions such as, What is the service or product? Why am I different or what are my differentiating qualities? How can the customer benefit from me? How can the customer contact or engage with me? What is the next step or page I want the customer to take? Also key in your content is the frequent use of keywords that relate to your products or services. If your writing flows naturally and is authentic, those keywords will appear naturally as well.
- User Flow and Layout: Paying close attention to how you want your visitors to traverse your website, rather than just tossing up a series of pages that have no clear flow or relation, can be a huge detriment to your user experience and traffic. Using a simple tool like Powerpoint or Word, or a more advanced tool for user flows and wireframes, will allow you to be sure you have the right approach to your web design. It’s so easy to dive into the design because that’s what tends to be the more exciting step in the process. but it’s dangerous to jump to early into that. Starting with the homepage, plot out the pieces of content you absolutely want to be included. Then, do the same for the first-level pages and so on, until you are comfortable with at least the first pass at content and flow. Nothing is set in stone, of course, but starting with a foundation of logic, rather than design before user flow and layout, will likely shave weeks off your project schedule in the long run and save you some energy you’d be smarter to direct toward design work later.
- Design: Whether you are working with an internal designer or have hired an agency that is well-versed in web design, you will want to look at multiple concepts before you decide on the final design. Any designer worth his/her salt will offer multiple options and be able to share the pros and cons of each, and you will need to balance the innate need to find a visually appealing design with the practical need for a fully-functional and logical design. I’ve seen so often how people drool over breath-taking design concepts, yet when the work is underway and the content gets populated into that design, they wish they could start over and use the more practical design that better accommodates their content. So, when you do select your design, work closely with your designer every step of the way on how things are shaping up. With all due respect to designers, they don’t know your business or the nature of your copy/content as well as you do, so keeping them on track will, again, save you time in the long run. Don’t be shy about being a pest!
These aren’t new ideas by any means, but keeping them in mind will help you approach any web design project will make you happy with the final result. More next week!
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